6 Possible Reasons Why Your Storage Facility Terminated Your Lease
If you’ve received a letter from your self storage facility terminating your lease, you may feel confused. The letter will explain a few things. It will include the date you’re expected to have all your belongings out. This will be at the end of the time you’ve paid for and can be as little as five days. It may or may not give you a reason why.
The best thing you can do is to comply. Move your things out as soon as you can. Then, find another facility and rent a new unit. If you don’t, your current facility will move to eviction, and once the court approves it, that will be on your rental record and it will be tough to find another facility that will rent to you.
The confusion will come from wondering why your lease was terminated, and you’ll want to avoid any mistakes you made when you move your belongings to another facility. There are six possible reasons your lease was terminated, and all have to do with breaking the rules.
You Stored Prohibited Items
There are certain classes of items that you are not allowed to store in your unit. These include perishable food, live plants and animals. You also cannot store hazardous materials, flammable materials, weapons, or ammunition. Of course, any illegal or stolen items are also prohibited.
You Were Living Out of Your Unit
If you are currently homeless, having a self storage unit can help a lot, as it will provide you a place to keep most of your belongings. Many facilities won’t have a problem with you keeping certain things there that you need to access daily, but you cannot sleep in your storage unit.
A self storage unit is not meant for human habitation, and sleeping in yours will lead to the end of your lease.
You Bothered Others
While it’s great to be friendly and say hello to other tenants while you’re dropping off or picking off boxes at your unit, it’s not okay to give anyone unwelcome attention, argue with them or otherwise come across as if you’re harassing them. This applies to how you treat tenants and employees of the facility.
You Damaged Property
Accidents happen. If you accidentally backed your car up into a door and dented it or damaged the property in any way, go to the office and let them know immediately. Chances are the facility’s insurance will cover it, and you’ll be able to maintain a positive relationship with the management for your honesty. Otherwise, this could be grounds for the facility to terminate your lease. Also, anyone who damages the property on purpose will be get their lease terminated.
You Were Too Loud
Visit a storage facility and you’ll quickly see that they’re peaceful places. If you see other tenants, they’re probably unloading boxes, retrieving boxes, or sorting them in their units.
Some people, however, like playing music or the radio at high volumes, and this can bother other tenants. Music you love may be noise pollution to someone else, and excessive noise can lead to the facility ending your lease.
You Loitered
Loitering is, at the very least, frowned upon at self storage facilities. Those who just hang out at a facility look suspicious. When you’re on the grounds of the facility you should be doing one of three things: dropping off belongings, picking up belongings, or organizing and cleaning your unit. If you’re in the office, you should be looking at merchandise, working with one of the employees, or waiting for an employee. When you’re done with your business, you leave.
If you don’t believe any of these apply, read over your lease and see if you can identify another reason. You can always contact an attorney for advice or representation, but in the end that may not be worth it, and your best bet is probably to move out of your current facility, find another, and carefully follow all the rules.
